ENGL 495 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Bedpan, Human Conditions, Stories And Texts For Nothing
4 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
26 March, 2018
Country Girls
- C defines herself in relation to Baba, usually thinks herself inferior, but occasionally
superior, always comparison
- Why do girls come in pairs?
- C’s attitude towards her body is very Catholic -- mortify flesh because flesh is inherently
impure
- Stephen in Portrait
does the same, feels the agonies of the flesh
- Opposite would be declaring prettiness
- After her mother’s disappearance, C notes that she’s 7 lbs too thin; C is always
too something
- Mr G always concerned with governing her body
- Identification of the body is not always in the positive sense, C draws attention to
physical defects
- C’s body compared constantly to Baba
- B calls C a sow, C pleased that her neck is whiter than B’s
- The girls who C finds pretty; C always judging other girls’ prettiness
- p 104, Sister Mary = pretty, pink-cheeked
- Queer reading: C is alert to other women’s prettiness as same-sex object
of desire; also as competition
- p 74, first nun who came to the classroom was young and very pretty; one
who’s pretty and twists her ring on the finger
- p 121, we were young and, we though, pretty
- Pretty is a way to track C’s sense of comfort in her body; identifying other
girls as pretty is a way of comparing herself, finding herself wanting or
superior
- B as slender, can be carried off; C is gawky, implies that she can’t be
carried off
- Body image is a way to convey same-sex desire in herself, tension to the body in
order to figure out sexual orientation
- Book is open to cosmopolitan foreign influence
- Mr G = French, new lodger at the end is Italian
- Foreignness that touches on Ireland; openness to foreignness -- C wants to be in
touch with things foreign
- p 128, C and B speak in Gaelic because they think Joanna and Gustave don’t
understand them
- B says: God protect us from the continent; B is more insular, C is more
willing to go to Vienna with Mr G
Samuel Beckett’s The End
- Most people read Samuel Beckett as an abstraction; story about humanity,
homelessness, dispossession, etc
Document Summary
C defines herself in relation to baba, usually thinks herself inferior, but occasionally superior, always comparison. C"s attitude towards her body is very catholic -- mortify flesh because flesh is inherently impure. Stephen in portrait does the same, feels the agonies of the flesh. After her mother"s disappearance, c notes that she"s 7 lbs too thin; c is always too something. Mr g always concerned with governing her body. Identification of the body is not always in the positive sense, c draws attention to physical defects. B calls c a sow, c pleased that her neck is whiter than b"s. The girls who c finds pretty; c always judging other girls" prettiness p 104, sister mary = pretty, pink-cheeked. Pretty is a way to track c"s sense of comfort in her body; identifying other girls as pretty is a way of comparing herself, finding herself wanting or superior.
